Metropolis meets Blade Runner — the world of 2046. All images courtesy of Buf. © Block 2 Pictures / Shanghai Film Group Corp.

The most eagerly awaited movie at last year’s Cannes International Film Festival was not the controversial Fahrenheit 9/11 but 2046, a mysterious feature film that celebrated Chinese director Wong Kar-Wai had been working on for four years. The complex storyline involves a writer (Tony Leung) who projects himself into the year 2046 in order to find his lost love. Wong shot the movie in 2000, right after the release of his highly successful In The Mood For Love. He kept rewriting the script and reshooting sequences for months after — until the months became years.

Obviously, this permanent “work-in-progress” status made 2046 a very unusual project for Buf Compagnie, the French digital studio hired to produce the visual effects. The Parisian company had previously done innovative work for a commercial that Wong had directed. Impressed by the results, the filmmaker had assigned all of the movie’s 100 effects shots to the studio. 2046 was to be the director’s first foray into feature film visual effects and Buf’s first Chinese film project ever. For both crews, the prospect of discovering each other’s culture and sharing work methodologies was one of the most exciting aspects of the project.

2046 marked a real evolution in Wong’s directorial style. Until then, he had always shot his movies on sound stages, mostly using tight shots or close-ups, and never employing visual effects. And here was a project that couldn’t exist without long panoramic shots and state of the art digital effects! The challenge was more than simply technological for him. It was artistic.

The Shape of Things to Come
The centerpiece of the effects work was the creation of the futuristic city that the main character discovers. Wong wasn’t sure what the stylistic approach of these shots should be. Although his art department had produced many sketches and paintings, he asked Buf to come up with suggestions of their own. In order to give the French artists a feel of what he was after, he invited them for a tour of the largest Chinese cities, pointing out architectural styles that he thought could form a basis for his futuristic city. Buf’s artists took advantage of this trip to shoot hundreds of reference photographs. Those images were later used to build the distinctive CG city.

Back in Paris, Buf started modeling futuristic buildings by combining architectural elements of real skyscrapers and adding parts that were designed in-house. For modeling, as for the rest of the effects pipeline, the studio relied solely on proprietary software. Textures were either real photographic elements captured on the scouting trip in China or digital creations. Since the artists had been granted complete artistic freedom, they started producing digital cityscapes with wildly different ambiances: sleek or heavily textured, clean or gritty, warm or cold, lively or lifeless. By producing a great variety of looks and ambiances, Buf made sure that Wong could review a maximum of options before nailing down the imagery he was after. In fact, the design process that usually involves the production of many sketches and paintings was tackled on this project mostly in CGI.

From this first series of cityscapes, the director approved several looks that formed the basis for a refined series of tests. These were in turn reviewed and developed into further tests. This lengthy process went on for three years, with every input by Wong being rendered into several CG variations of the concept. Sometimes, the director would send artwork produced by his art department to help clarify specific designs. Little by little, test after test, Buf eventually managed to come up with a unique look that won the director’s approval.